First Energy won't convert coal-fired power plants to dual firing for now

Last year, FirstEnergy Corp. was looking at its remaining coal-fired power plants along the Ohio River and West Virginia and considering whether to add boilers that would use natural gas.

The move, which would be costly and take place over several years, would allow the power plants to generate electricity from natural gas as well as the coal that has come under intense environmental scrutiny in recent years. The plants included three in southwestern Pennsylvania, including the Bruce Mansfield Plant in Shippingport, Mitchell Power Station in Courtney and Hatfield's Ferry in Masontown.

But after giving it thought, the Akron, Ohio-based energy company, which is also parent to West Penn Power, announced on Tuesday that it would close Mitchell Power Station and Hatfield's Ferry by Oct. 9 and lay off many of the 380 employees there. It'll also take off the table, for the time being, a move to add coal/natural gas-fired boilers at Bruce Mansfield and its remaining coal-fired power plants.

"It's something that we looked at with all our facilities," George Farah, vice president of fossil engineering and construction at FirstEnergy, said in an interview with the Pittsburgh Business Times on Tuesday morning.

But instead the company has decided that its coal plants would instead be retrofitted with equipment that will reduce their emissions to levels that are required under existing and potential federal regulations. Farah said that the obstacles to overcome in adding natural gas-fired boilers were just too great for the company to invest in them right now.

Among those obstacles were the large amount of capital required that would include new boilers, fire protection systems, and the cost of bringing the natural gas to the plants from pipelines. And beyond that, for the economics to work, the price of natural gas has to below where it is now for a sustained period.

"Add all those things up and at this point" it's not feasible, Farah said.

The Bruce Mansfield Plant has some equipment to reduce mercury, nitrus oxide and acid gas. FirstEnergy is working with an engineering firm to enhance its cleaning systems at Bruce Mansfield. FirstEnergy has announced plans to deactivate 11 coal-fired power plants, including the two in southwestern Pennsylvania revealed Tuesday. It doesn't expect to close any more but it has a team that evaluates how current and future environmental regulations affects them.

The Mitchell and Hatfield's Ferry shutdowns will leave FirstEnergy with a fuel mix of about 56 percent coal. That's down from 64 percent in 2012 before the previous shutdowns, according to spokeswoman Jennifer Young.

"The combination of the continued slow economy plus the environmental regulations that we know about and the uncertainty of the future ones led us to this decision today," said Farah.

The closing of the two plants will leave as many as 380 employees out of work. The employees were told Tuesday morning.

Chuck Cookson, executive director of labor and safety, said that FirstEnergy was working with employees and Utility Workers Union of America Local 102 to find jobs within the company for some of the workers.

"We have a lot of good people (at the plants) that we'd like to find places for but it'll be difficult," Cookson said.

The union has been told that the deactivation will happen sometime between Sept. 9 and Oct. 9.

Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., blamed the Obama administration for the decision to close the plant.

"Coal is a domestically sourced, low-cost form of energy which helps sustain jobs for Pennsylvania and beyond. Over the decades, coal-fired plants also have gone to impressive lengths to reduce emissions," Toomey said in a prepared statement. "Nevertheless, the Obama administration continues to implement policies that will make energy more expensive for hard-working Pennsylvanians while destroying good, family-sustaining jobs."